Evolution of Japanese art: from modern to contemporary art

Delve back into Japanese art history and you’ll see a long tradition of using nature, religion and East-Asian philosophies as subjects, hence the prevalence of waves, mountains, plants and flowers. The most iconic example of this practice is Katsushika Hokusai’s wood print ‘Under the Wave off Kanagawa’ from the series ‘Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji’ (c. 1829-1833), which depicts a giant wave at the cusp of crashing.

However, after almost 300 years of self-imposed isolation, Japan reopened its borders and began trading with the West during the Meiji restoration period (1868- 1912) and with this, Western art, culture and technology flooded into the Japanese consciousness. Just as late 19th century European artists like Edgar Degas and Claude Monet were greatly influenced by their exposure to Japanese art, artists in Japan also reinterpreted their nation’s traditional styles with modern influences. In 1897, the Tokyo School of Fine Arts established the department of Western painting– it was here that many Japanese artists learned of Western art and its themes and techniques.

The former work is a typical traditional art with nature as its subject. These six-fold screens, showing an exquisite image of a gorge with cherry blossoms fluttering in the wind, represents one of the most elaborate and artistically refined works Kawai ever painted. Although he studied Japanese painting in Kyoto and Tokyo, he was inspired by Western art and its depiction of emotions. In this work, Kawai focused on each stroke to capture the expression of movement in the cherry blossoms and the rapid flow of the water.

Koga’s ‘Sea’, however, is a seminal work in Japanese art history. This whimsical portrayal of the ocean, complete with a submarine, fish, airship, sailboat and a lady in swimsuit, fully embraces the best aspects of surrealist imagery that was popular at that time, in a world struggling through depression and about to dive into the madness of another world war.

This welcoming of international ideas was proof that Japanese artists could embrace the zeitgeist of their era, while holding onto the age-old techniques and styles that made their work radically different to anything outside the country’s borders.

After World War II, Japanese art went through further major changes and experimentation. This period gave birth to artist collectives like the radical Gutai Group, who rejected traditional styles in favour of large-scale multimedia and performance art in the 1950s, and Mono-ha, who experimented with large-scale monuments and spaces in the 1960s through to the 1970s.

This new crop of artists has piqued the interest of collectors from the private sector, who are increasingly buying works from young Japanese artists. New galleries have emerged in recent years and there has been a resurgent interest in Japanese art from local museums.